The Netherlands will take next week goodbye of the remaining corona measures. But there are also advices that remain for the time being. You should still self-isolate if you’ve tested positive, and you should be quarantined if you’ve been in close contact with someone who’s infected. By the way, this does not apply if you belong to one of the exception groups belongs, for example because you have had a booster.
Experts expect that we will not soon be saying goodbye to testing and insulation. Professor of virology and OMT member Marion Koopmans emphasizes that we are in a transitional phase and that we need to keep a close eye on things. “We do not know how it will continue, corona is not (yet) part of the normal package of winter viruses. How long will we continue to see waves of infections and how severe are they?” During this transition period, it is important to stick to testing for complaints and to stay home if you are infected, she says.
Koopmans also wonders whether we should perhaps be stricter with other viruses. “Before the corona pandemic, we were used to continuing to work with flu symptoms. But is that still logical? Who do you enjoy if you continue to walk around with the flu and infect vulnerable people? I’m not going to talk about it, but that discussion should as far as I’m concerned.”
Keep the brake on
Doctor-microbiologist at UMC Utrecht and OMT member Marco Bonten say that the quarantine measure is still necessary to keep a brake on the virus. According to him, contamination can occur before someone has symptoms. “That’s underlying the advice.”
“If you are a roommate of someone who has corona, there is a good chance that you are already infected and therefore also contagious,” Bonten continues. Someone who then goes outside can infect others. That is why quarantine is a good way to ensure that corona spreads less quickly, says Bonten. “Also to ensure that the most vulnerable people do not come into contact with the virus.”
He expects the current contamination peak to fall again quickly, especially in view of the nice weather that is coming. Then there will be fewer infections and fewer people will be affected by the quarantine measure.
The quarantine measure creates obstacles in some industries, for example for companies that organize events. Performances are canceled because employees test positive for corona, says producer Fred Boot of the musical Soldaat van Oranje:
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